Ahmedabad:

Tearing through memes, wisecracks and criticism, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is on a two-day India visit, on Thursday visited a factory of the British heavy equipment maker JCB at Gujarat’s Halol industrial area near Vadodara.

The Prime Minister’s visit to the bulldozer factory attracted outsized attention as it came amid a growing controversy over razing homes and shops by BJP-controlled governments and municipalities in a campaign that the opposition and activists say has targeted mostly Muslims.

#WATCH UK PM Boris Johnson along with Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel visits JCB factory at Halol GIDC, Panchmahal in Gujarat

(Source: UK Pool) pic.twitter.com/Wki9PKAsDA

— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2022

Criticised as “tone-deaf” and “ironic”, Mr Johnson’s visit coincided with the Supreme Court renewing orders to stop the demolitions in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, days after a communal clash. The demolitions, which took place around a mosque, targeted “one particular section of society”, petitioners had said.

Seems like @BorisJohnson‘s visit is now turning increasingly tone-deaf. Visiting a plant of the JCB company while its bulldozers are being used to illegally terrorise Muslims? Someone at @UKinIndia failed to do their job. Only way Johnson can salvage this trip is by speaking up. https://t.co/W42Zb72DC2

— Mohamed Zeeshan (@ZeeMohamed_) April 21, 2022

As many such images emerged from Delhi, it is ironical that the UK PM ⁦⁦@BorisJohnson⁩ will inaugurate a JCB factory in Gujarat today.#borisinindiapic.twitter.com/2B7lDERk4Z

— Danish Khan (@DanishKhan80) April 21, 2022

JCB’s website proudly notes that it is used for construction, agriculture, recycling and power generation.

In India, it is being used to disposess the poor and inflict collective humiliation upon Muslims.

Hope that friends in the UK will make hold their PM to account. Tag them. https://t.co/Jc7iX1ERpCpic.twitter.com/pjJF2wka9Y

— Alishan Jafri (@alishan_jafri) April 21, 2022

What a bulldozer of an irony! British PM @BorisJohnson will inaugurate the JCB plant in Halol that will manufacture bulldozers on a day when Supreme Court is taking cognisance of the constitutional limits of the administration’s use of the machine. #jahagirpuri

— sanjay kapoor (@sanjaykpr) April 21, 2022

From Gandhi’s Charkha to Modi’s JCB – Boris Johnson covered the history of India from 1947 to 2022, in a day. pic.twitter.com/1N0Fcku3iT

— PuNsTeR™ (@Pun_Starr) April 21, 2022

Boris Johnson, in India, expected to visit a JCB bulldozer plant in Gujarat…on day India’s supreme court hears urgent case of how authorities in two states wheeled in bulldozers (JCB logos visible) to raze homes & shops in areas of communal clashes without notice or due process https://t.co/EP8WqMJeVm

— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) April 21, 2022

Mr Johnson visited the JCB facility following a meeting with industrialist Gautam Adani in Ahmedabad earlier in the day.

According to sources quoted by news agency PTI, the two discussed, among other things, key sectors such as energy transition, climate action, aerospace and defence collaboration.

Mr Johnson landed in Gujarat earlier today for his two-day India visit. He received a grand welcome at the airport in Ahmedabad and visited Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram.

Mr Johnson’s visit to India will focus on stepping up cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, driving negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries, as well as enhancing defence ties.

This is the first time a UK Prime Minister is in Gujarat, India’s fifth-largest state and the ancestral home of around half of the British-Indian population in the UK.